Packaging machine for bags to be filled with liquids, powders or granular products

ABSTRACT

The improvement resides in the provision of a deflecting roller sucking with suction pads the packages sealed and cut, so as to horizontally deflect the same of 90* and cause the fall thereof in containers constituting a first endless conveyor. A second endless conveyor is provided, the width of which is the same as the package and moved perpendicularly to the first mentioned endless conveyor.

United States atent Tamagni 1 Feb. 15, 1972 [54] PACKAGING MACHINE FORBAGS TO BE FILLED WITH LIQUIDS, POWDERS OR GRANULAR PRODUCTS [72]Inventor:

[73] Assignee:

Luigi Tamagni, Milano, Italy EUROSlCMA-Socleta Italians CostruzioniMacchine Automatiche S.r.l., Milan, Italy [22] Filed: Jan. 14,1970

[21] Appl.No.: 2,858

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data Jan. 23, 1969 Italy ..11900 A169[52] US. Cl ..53/l82, 53/251 [51] ..B65b 9/02, B65b 61/08 [58] Field ofSearch ..53/28, 180, 182, 159, 160,

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,139,714 7/1964 Hall..53/l59 3,237,369 3/1966 Stroop ..53/ I 80 3,435,584 4/1969 Prechter..53/l59 X 3,445,980 5/1969 Salomon 353/159 X Primary ExaminerTheron E.Condon Assistant Examiner-Eugene F. Desmond ABSTRACT The improvementresides in the provision of a deflecting roller sucking with suctionpads the packages sealed and cut, so as to horizontally deflect the sameof 90 and cause the fall thereof in containers constituting a firstendless conveyor. A second endless conveyor is provided, the width ofwhich is the same as the package and moved perpendicularly to the firstmentioned endless conveyor.

3 Claims, 6 Drawing Figures PAIENTEBFEB 1 5 m2 SHEU 1 OF 2 INVENTOPPATENTEBFEB 1972 3.841 .737

SHEET 2 [IF 2 INVENIOI? PACKAGING MACHINE FOR BAGS TO BE FILLED WITHLIQUIDS, POWDERS R GRANULAR PRODUCTS The present invention relates toimprovements in packaging machines comprising a first pair of sealingrollers adapted to form longitudinal seals between two webs ofthermoplastic film material, a rotating device for the material to bepacked, a second pair of rollers acting to form transverse seals andsever the completed packages from the two webs. More particularly theinvention is concerned with an improvement by which the packages made bya packaging machine known as above can be oriented, directly cartoned orpiled up in order to permit a subsequent cartoning by hand orautomatically by cartoners. As is well known, the cartoning of loosepackages creates many difficulties concerning counting, orienting,grouping, which disadvantages in practice increase the cost of thefinished product as they involve more handwork. An object of thisinvention is to mitigate or overcome these difficulties. According tothe inventive step just before the severing operation the packages, invertical position, are sucked by a deflecting roller with suction padswhich deflect them of 90 discharging them horizontally in a multiplecollecting bucket. Of course the packages are discharged in n rows andeach row includes for instance m packages. The above said multiplecollecting buckets form an endless conveyor with intermittent motionidentified by a rest time T equal to the formation of n rows of bags anda displacement time equal to a small fraction UK of T/n (n is the numberof rows in each multiple bucket). According to a further feature of theabove device, a second endless conveyor made of simple buckets isforeseen, placed perpendicularly to the first one, the width of which isequal to the length of the packages and with intermittent motion, with amotion time, for each cycle, slightly less than the formation time T ofn packages rows, also in the case that the simple buckets of the secondconveyor have to receive, at each cycle, the contents of two or moremultiple buckets.

The inventive contents of the invention will be better explained bymeans of the following description intended only as exemplification anddefinitively not as a limitation, schematically showed in the encloseddrawing, where:

H6. 1 shows, a schematic vertical section of a packaging machineaccording to the invention;

HO. 2 shows a schematic perspective view of a packaging machineaccording to one embodiment;

FIG. 3 is a perspective drawing of one package packed on the deviceofFlG. I;

FlG. 4 shows a diagram in function of time 2, speed v of theintermittent motion of the bucket conveyor receiving the packages fromthe packaging machine;

FIG. 5 as per FIG. 4 shows respectively a diagram corresponding to thesecond belt conveyor in case that the number of the packages received inthe simple bucket of the second conveyor is equal to the number ofpackages of each element of the multiple bucket of the first conveyor,of course, at each cycle.

FIG. 6 shows the same as FIG. 5, but in the case that the number ofpackages received in the simple bucket is the double of the number ofpackages contained in each element of the multiple bucket of the firstconveyor (at each cycle).

With reference now to the drawings in detail, a liquid or powdered orgranulated product is discharged from a hopper 1 into a rotatablemetering device 2 of a known construction. Two opposed webs 3 and 4 ofthermoplastic film are longitudinally heat sealed together by sealingrollers 5 and, at the same time, the product to be packed is droppedinto the row of packages being formed. Then a second pair of rollers 6form cross seals and cut the packages from the webs so as to form ahorizontal row of packages.

Just before the row of packages 7 fall down due to gravity, a roller 8bearing four aligned suction pads 9 connected with a vacuum pump (notshown in the drawings), acts in synchronization with the motion of themachine. The setting of the suction device is arranged such that,immediately before the packages are cut, the suction pads 9 operate tohold the packages while the roller 8 rotates through orienting thepackages substantially in the horizontal position; at this moment thesuction pads stop acting so that the packages are released and drop intoone of a series of composite buckets 30 each formed byfelements (in thiscase f--4). Each multiple (composite) bucket 30 is part of an endlessconveyor 10 moved intermittently as shown by arrows K. The conveyorrests for a time T equal to the time required for the production of n(horizontal) rows of packages, after this, each multiple bucket, movesquickly in a time T/K where K is remarkably larger than n, i.e., T/K isremarkably shorter than the time Thu required for forming one row ofpackages. in other words T/K is a small fraction of the time T/nrequired to form a single row of packages. According to one embodimentof the present invention the endless conveyor 10 carries the compositebuckets over a second endless conveyor 40 with a displacement directionS perpendicular to the direction K of the first conveyor 10. This secondconveyor 40 has a number of buckets 30' (opened on both ends) having awidth U which corresponds to the length L of each package. A guidingcover 50 prevents the packages from falling out of the buckets 30 duringthe rotation of the conveyor 10 over the guide pulleys 60. The rest timet of the second conveyor 40 is a little lesser than T/ n if the numberof the multiple buckets 30 received by the buckets 30' at everyoperative cycle is l; vice versa if the number of the multiple buckets30 received by the buckets 30 is 2, 3, 4 then the above rest time t isincreased of the time Thu, twice the time T/n, three times the time T/n,etc.... The time of motion is lesser than the time T even in the casewhen the number of multiple buckets 30' received at every operativecycle is higher than 1.

The conveyor 40 moves slowly for a distance corresponding to the width Vof the multiple buckets 30 in a time which is slightly shorter than thetime required for the complete filling of one multiple buckets, thenstops. The diagram 4 and 5 show very well this, for the case when atevery cycle the second conveyor receives the packages contained in onemultiple bucket only.

P10. 6 shows, on the contrary, the diagram of the motion of the secondconveyor 40 in the case that this receives at every cycle the contentsof two multiple buckets. The upper part of the second conveyor runs on abench 66 where the operators put the packages into the carton boxes byhand, taking them from the simple bucket 30. The packages can also behandled by an automatic cartoner which can be connected to the secondconveyor. lf the boxes have top lid, they can be superposed to thebuckets 30' or replace them. This represents one of the most interestingfeature of the invention.

No reserve is made neither regarding the utilization of temporisers onwhich depend the different intermittent motions, nor on other devices oftechnological nature. For example the suction valve 70 on which thesuction and release phase of the suction pads 9 depends could varyaccording to a great variety of solutions.

What I claim is:

l. A packaging machine of the kind consisting of a first pair of sealingrollers able to perform longitudinal seals on two webs of athermoplastic film, comprising in combination: a rotating meteringdevice for the material to be packed; a pair of sealing-cutting rollersable to complete the finished package from the two webs of thermoplasticmaterial; a first endless conveyor, consisting of a number of multiplebuckets; a second endless conveyor consisting ofa number of simple U-profiled buckets with two opposite open sides, the said second endlessconveyor container being arranged perpendicularly to the first mentionedendless conveyor and having a width equal to the length of a package; adeflecting roller combined with a number of suction pads able to suckthe aligned packages just before the cutting operation thereof anddischarging them into the said first endless conveyor; first controlmeans for the said first conveyor for giving the same an intermittentmotion formed of rest and quick shifting stages; the quick shiftingstage time lasting T/K, equal to a small fraction UK of the time Trequired for obtaining in rows of bags and the rest stage time lastingT(T/K); second control means for giving the said second endless conveyorand the first conveyor an intermittent motion consisting of a shiftingstage and a rest stage; the shifting stage time of the said secondendless conveyor lasting less than the time T necessary for filling amultiple bucket regardless of the bag number of the multiple bucketsreceived at every operation cycle.

2. A packaging machine according to the claim 1, where

1. A packaging machine of the kind consisting of a first pair of sealingrollers able to perform longitudinal seals on two webs of athermoplastic film, comprising in combination: a rotating meteringdevice for the material to be packed; a pair of sealingcutting rollersable to complete the finished package from the two webs of thermoplasticmaterial; a first endless conveyor, consisting of a number of multiplebuckets; a second endless conveyor consisting of a number of simpleU-profiled buckets with two opposite open sides, the said second endlessconveyor container being arranged perpendicularly to the first mentionedendless conveyor and having a width equal to the length of a package; adeflecting roller combined with a number of suction pads able to suckthe aligned packages just before the cutting operation thereof anddischarging them into the said first endless conveyor; first controlmeans for the said first conveyor for giving the same an intermittentmotion formed of rest and quick shifting stages; the quick shiftingstage time lasting T/K, equal to a small fraction 1/K of the time Trequired for obtaining n rows of bags and the rest stage time lastingT-(T/K); second control means for giving the said second endlessconveyor and the first conveyor an intermittent motion consisting of ashifting stage and a rest stage; the shifting stage time of the saidsecond endless conveyor lasting less than the time T necessary forfilling a multiple bucket regardless of the bag number of the multiplebuckets received at every operation cycle.
 2. A packaging machineaccording to the claim 1, where said second endless conveyor is adaptedto transport boxes to be filled with the packages.
 3. A packagingmachine according to the claim 1, comprising in combination for thefirst mentioned endless conveyor, guiding covers at the locations of theinversion of the motion thereof so as to prevent a fall of the packagesdischarged into the buckets of the second endless conveyor.